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Sunday, April 17, 2011

In Monday's post about my sister's cat Taboo, I mentioned that one of their other cats, Lucy, had been sick for a few weeks now, mostly having difficulty keeping food down. I had a feeling that she would not be with us much longer after Taboo passed, giving her two weeks at most. Many companion animals, particularly older ones in poor health, will often give up their own fight after their companion has gone.

We saw this with my half-sister Karlé’s cats. Buster had feline diabetes for many years. When he finally passed, his sister Martha—who, it turned out, had heart disease—died only a few weeks later. The last couple of days, Lucy had stopped eating altogether, and Saturday morning they made the difficult decision of putting her down, laying her to rest beside Taboo in their backyard. RIP Lucy.

4 comments:

When our cat, Beowulf, died, his brother, Grendel, flourished. He not only live several years longer, he became healthier and more mellow. Odd, because Beowulf always seemed like a good influence on him.

Sounds like Grendel was in fairly good health when his brother passed. In the case of my sisters' cats, both of theirs were in ill-health, though one in each pair seemed to hide it from their owners.

With Martha and Buster... Buster was the one who was outwardl ill, having feline diabetes. After she died, they discovered that Martha had, in fact, been blind for some time before she passed. She "hid" it by hugging walls, and knowing the general layout of the house. She was always more protective of her brother, so seemed to hold on until after he passed, then decided it was okay to go herself.

With Taboo and Lucy, Lucy was the one who exhibited outward signs of being ill, while Taboo seems to have suffered feline heart disease (same as Martha), but showed no signs of being sick. He was always moody, so while that might be a sign something was wrong in many cats, it wasn't with him.

In any case, they are now down to one cat, a stray named Nala they took in more than a year ago, and who has become quite a glutton. My sister is now placing her on a strict diet, in hopes she might be with them a while.